


Terms of Engagement

by misura



Category: The Grand Ellipse - Paula Volsky
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, Multi, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-23 03:44:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/921593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Are you telling me you wish to break off our engagement in order for me to marry Karsler instead?"</i>
</p><p><i>"No," Girays said. "That's not what I'm telling you, Luzelle."</i> (post-canon AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Terms of Engagement

"M. the Marquis is jesting," Luzelle managed, forcing herself to look away from the wonder that was Karsler Stornzof, alive and well.

Girays's expression was very odd. "You think that I would joke about something like this, Luzelle?"

"It's true you are not renown for your sparkling wit and sense of humor," Luzelle admitted, opting to omit her confession that, sparkling wit or not, over the past months, she had grown to quite enjoy his company.

Had she been less swamped by invitations and offers, she might even have been entertaining the occasional thought of what her life might have looked like had she married Girays after all.

"Only because I am all too well aware you have me outmatched in both those departments."

Typical: even when he was ostensibly paying her a compliment, he somehow managed to make it sound like he was criticizing her.

"Still, you might make the effort now and then."

"And risk demolishing this oh-so clear image you have of me as a stuffy bore?" Girays smiled. "Surely not."

"A stuffy, _conservative_ bore," Luzelle corrected. "And I assure you I no longer think of you as at all boring."

"Merely stuffy and conservative, then? Well, I suppose that is progress, of a sort."

"Rather disagreeable to you, I'm sure. After all, progress is hardly something you approve of as a conservative, is it?"

"In this particular case, I believe I'll survive," Girays said dryly. "And entertaining as it is to mince words with you, might we perhaps return to the matter at hand?"

"That being?" Luzelle asked, thinking furiously. However had Girays managed it? Assuming it was, in fact, any doing of Girays that Karsler still lived.

Much more likely, Karsler had managed the thing on his own. Naturally, he would not have been able to return to the Imperium; equally naturally, he would have heard of the engagement between her and Girays and come here in order to - well. There was the rub, wasn't it?

"You hold, I believe, some affection for this man."

Pointless to deny it. "I do."

Girays inclined his head. "You are not alone in this, Miss Devaire."

Which was all very fine, but it still failed to tell her anything of his intentions. "Are you telling me you wish to break off our engagement in order for me to marry Karsler instead?"

It would be unexpectedly noble of him, not to mention wholly out of character. From Karsler, she might have expected such a gesture - from Girays, never.

"No," Girays said. "That's not what I'm telling you, Luzelle."

"Then I'm afraid I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."

Girays sighed. "It would please me - and Stornzof as well, I am reasonably sure - if you were to have us both."

"Have you both," Luzelle echoed. Well. It was not unheard of among certain tribes, of course, especially in instances when the males greatly outnumbered the females. Still, Vonahr was a much more civilized place.

"I'm sorry," Girays apologized. "I am not expressing myself as clearly as I might."

"And where did M. the Marquis imagine we might celebrate our bigamous wedding?" Luzelle felt dizzy. Hardly her fault, she felt; first, Karsler had turned out to have survived that terrible night at the Waterwitch after all, and now Girays was proposing she wed two people at once.

More, she suddenly realized: he was proposing himself and Karsler do the same.

"I am, of course, aware that the arrangement would have to be an unofficial one," Girays said.

"Of course," Luezelle repeated. An unofficial wedding. No wedding at all, then; merely an agreement between the three of them. An 'arrangement', as Girays had put it so eloquently.

"Luzelle." Girays' tone reminded her of the tone he had used to speak to her so very often when she had been nineteen and, in hindsight, perhaps slightly too headstrong for her own good. "Surely you can see that there is no other possible way? If we were to marry, I could hardly approve of your engaging in a relationship with another man - nor would my honor permit me to enter such a relationship myself."

"You have some very peculiar notions of what's honorable and what isn't, Girays."

"If you wish for things to be otherwise, I will abide by your decision."

"Not happily," Luzelle murmured. Still, the offer itself was already quite a concession. She wondered if he had only made it because he was confident she would not take him up on it.

"No," Girays admitted. "Not happily."

"And you have already discussed this with Karsler?"

Girays hesitated. "We had much time to talk. Both during the race and ... after."

No discussion had yet taken place, then. M. the Marquis had simply taken it upon himself to consider the problem and decide which solution most suited him. High-handed as usual.

"Luzelle ... I am fairly certain that Karsler feels as I do."

It took her a few moments to get his meaning. "How kind of you to leave the decision about whether or not I will marry respectably entirely to me."

"As a woman, yours is the reputation that would suffer the most severe damage. We are not unaware of this. Of course, we would take the necessary measures to minimize the damage. Still." Girays shrugged helplessly. "It is not a choice I believe you should make lightly."

"You astonish me, Girays. You make it sound as if there are, in fact, choices you feel it is all right for me to make lightly."

Girays scowled. "Clearly, I misspoke."

"Still a conservative, I see."

"Luzelle. Please. This is a very serious matter. You are not a foolish woman. You must realize this."

Marry Girays and banish Karsler as definitively from her life and heart as if he had been dead after all? Or not marry Girays and remain free to love as she would, yet risk society's scorn?

"Such high praise, Girays. Are you feeling quite all right?"

"I am mildly terrified you will choose to do something foolish," Girays confessed. "Past experiences are hard to forget, I'm afraid."

"I was hardly the only one whose choices weren't always as well-considered as they might have been," Luzelle said sharply. "And I, at least, had the excuse of my youth and inexperience."

"Perhaps. Well, there is no need for you to make up your mind this very instant. You - "

"I," Luzelle said, "believe our engagement shall turn out to be quite lengthy. Years, at least."

Girays sketched a bow that would have made anyone else look foolish. "I promise you there is not a woman in the world I would rather be lengthily engaged to."

"Again with the flattery."

"Truth, Miss Devaire, can never be flattery."


End file.
